FEMA should pay for additional measures to prevent storm damage: An editorial

Louisiana state and local officials have argued for months that the federal government shouldn't have stopped setting aside hazard mitigation money in 2008, only three years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- and they are right.

Ellis Lucia, The Times-Picayune archiveFederal grants have paid for raising homes and other measures to prevent storm and flood damage across metro New Orleans.

The federal government gives grants for disaster prevention measures based in part on damage assessments after a catastrophe. For Katrina and Rita, those damage assessments were still ongoing in mid-2008, and state officials said FEMA should have continued approving money for hazard mitigation as it handed out additional damage payments. State officials believe the federal decision has cost the state as much as $400 million in money for projects to prevent future damage.

That's why it's significant that FEMA has agreed to consider making additional hazard mitigation grants based on damage determined since 2008. The agency has not agreed on a specific amount and said it's awaiting a formal request from the state. But state Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater said a payment ranging between $300 million and $400 million has been discussed.

State officials would decide how any additional hazard mitigation payments are distributed, and most of the money should come to parts of metro New Orleans and other areas most affected by the storms.

The funds would pay for crucial projects. In New Orleans, for example, Mayor Mitch Landrieu has said the city would use its share to restore the Sewerage & Water Board's in-house power plant. The century-old plant has failed four times since Katrina, including in November when it prompted a two-day boil-water advisory.

Before it stopped tallying hazard mitigation grants in 2008, FEMA had committed $1.47 billion to Louisiana. About half of that money was set aside to help Road Home applicants pay for small projects to help make their homes more storm resistant, including installing shutters or elevating their homes. The remaining money is being used for public purposes, such as buying flood-prone properties or making drainage improvements.

Under regular federal rules, FEMA sets a date to stop tallying new hazard mitigation payments, and for the 2005 storms that date came in May 2008. But as state officials have pointed out, those rules do not work for the 2005 storms because of the scale of the damage and also because for the first few years FEMA undervalued damage assessments for important items, such as Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

Just as important, the failure of the federal levees caused most of the damage in large parts of our metro area. The government should include all the assessments of that damage in the calculation of hazard mitigation grants, regardless of whether the assessments were completed after 2008.

That's the right thing to do -- and it's good to see that FEMA appears to be recognizing it.